K.I.T.T. Dashboard/Voice Modulator Blunders

[HisNameisGarth]

Someone pointed this out on the boards a long time ago, I think, but the shot still belongs in this thread. If you look closely at the yellow button on the switch pod in "Redemption Of a Champion," you can see that it reads "R.C.'s":



In this shot from "Junk Yard Dog" when K.I.T.T. is being rebuilt, you can see that the tachometer only says "X 100," when it should read "X 1000":

Actually, if K.I.T.T. was indeed powered by a turbine -- it probably should have said x 10,000!
Turbines spin way faster than piston / internal combustion engines.

[Rainack]

Not only can we see the round steering wheel, but also a single monitor instead of doubles. Clearly it's not the Hero Car. Later in Seasons 3 & 4, the stunt cars still had the 2-monitor dashboard:

This is large single monitor is in at least 2 Season 3 episodes. I saw it in Ice Bandits, and also Knight in Disgrace.

Also, I too have noticed the change in the Pursuit Mode back light color. I think it was changed when he was upgraded by Bonnie after the missle nearly destroyed K.I.T.T. in Knight of the Drones.

[Knight Racer]

I think afterthey try to fix kitt for a second time in this episode you notice Bonnie working on the season 2 dash so we now know that the white kitt body was a season 2 repainted.This is at 33 minutes 52 seconds of Junk Yard Dog.

[Harry Singh Jr.]

Wow you guys are good. The only blooper I know of is in the last fight of KARR and KITT. When the collide if you look to the left in the explosion, you'll actually see KITT fall back.

[KRFANATIC]

Hi everyone, I'm new here.. I noticed a blunder I'm not sure is listed here. In episode 1 of season 3, "sdkfslf". The episode where KITT gets blown up by the rocket launcher. The entire episode til that point, everytime they showed KITT driving and you can see the dash from the outside, it was already his new dash. When there were close ups of the dash while he was talking, it was still the old one. I unfortunately don't have pics and don't know how do capture from DVD yet. Thanks

[Rainack]

This isn't a K.I.T.T. dashboard blunder, but it is a pretty big blunder. In two of the episodes with the helicopters in them: 1. The instrument panels for both helicopters are exactly the same. 2. Both of those instruments panels have the EXACT same blue 3 line label that starts out "simulation engine...".

[Lost Knight]

Caught this one by accident in the "locations ?" thread. I believe it's from "Knight Of the Phoenix," and it's another weird-looking voice modulator:

[MLAM]

Not so much a odd dash shot but in "Silent Knight" K.I.T.T is doing 200 RPM when he is crusing

[CJaguar442]

awesome find dude

[FLAGCEO]

Wow... I'm really impressed at how you guys catch these things. That last one from Knight of the Phoenix was literally like less than a second's worth of film. I certainly didn't notice it until I kept on pausing it on that specific spot. In KITT v. KARR, again after reading the post here, I did notice the KITT mock-up fall to the side at the explosion. I never would have seen it if I hadn't read it here.

In the new series, I literally went frame by frame of the battle sequence in the KITT v. KARR (Knight to King's Pawn) episode, which of course was 100% computer generated at MKV.

[FLAGCEO]

Not so much a odd dash shot but in "Silent Knight" K.I.T.T is doing 200 RPM when he is crusing

Did you notice the speed on the left side, which ALSO says "2"?

[MLAM]

Not so much a odd dash shot but in "Silent Knight" K.I.T.T is doing 200 RPM when he is crusing

Did you notice the speed on the left side, which ALSO says "2"?

I did after I posted it last night , note also the light curve for the RPM is all fully lit, I think that should only happen when the engine/turbine is pulling max revs and not at "2" .

Clearly shows the dash didn't actually work in the cars back then, but its part of the charm

[Rainack]

Not so much a odd dash shot but in "Silent Knight" K.I.T.T is doing 200 RPM when he is crusing

Did you notice the speed on the left side, which ALSO says "2"?

This one isn't TOS, it's from Team KR. The third episode, when the two company execs are speeding head on toward each other: they show the RPMs revving on the engines, but if you look to the right, you see the mph are at 0.

[jup]

I imagine that being so early in the show, they had a 1.0 dash for the pilot built...and even that was given consideration on a new direction...when the "KNIGHT 2000" words were clearly present over the 1.0 modulator light.

As for the stickered dash on the convertable...I'm tempted to say that the time table on creating episodes was very tight and they probably didn't have time to actually build a new dash into the convertable show car by the time that shot was needed. Blame it on lack of time.

My favorite blunder was in Trust Doesn't Rust. It's one of the few shots where we get a hint that the show car had actual working dash lights and could sync the modulator light to the spoken lines. Only thing is...it was KARR speaking with KITT's red flashing light. Indirectly, as the light was shining off the seats in a darkened environment.

Then, (semi-off topic) another favorite shot of mine is from season four. (Episode name, unknown.) KITT drives by the camera. It was just a three second filler shot; totally valueless. KITT's paint is so shiny, it mirrors the camera crew, PERFECTLY. Such a blunder beyond explanation, I had desires on replacing my avatar with that one moment. Caption it "Hello, S.I.D., 0-point-O." or something like that.

Unless it was something they just threw in for the DVD set, I can't imagine how blind the editing room employees were to let that one slip.

[jup]

In the new series, I literally went frame by frame of the battle sequence in the KITT v. KARR (Knight to King's Pawn) episode, which of course was 100% computer generated at MKV.

It's going to be hard to "point out" such physical errors in that series. They have that excuse that KITT was just experimenting with looks, thanks to that plot device they call the Nanobot that physically alters everything body surface wise.

[Lost Knight]

I imagine that being so early in the show, they had a 1.0 dash for the pilot built...and even that was given consideration on a new direction...when the "KNIGHT 2000" words were clearly present over the 1.0 modulator light.

I would agree. I'm making educated guesses here, but I'd say we had the 20-minute presentation footage dashboard which had the "Knight 2000" voice modulator lettering as well as the "Knight Two Thousand" lettering on the steering wheel. I believe all the functioning dashboard shots came from that particular car throughout most of Season 1 (and/or perhaps a mock-up dash), while the main Hero Car had a more refined but incomplete dash which explains all the oddities in my thread here.

As for the stickered dash on the convertable...I'm tempted to say that the time table on creating episodes was very tight and they probably didn't have time to actually build a new dash into the convertable show car by the time that shot was needed. Blame it on lack of time.

Good theory, but I believe I have a better one. According to Knight Rider Legacy, there were four main cars for the show not counting the stunt cars. These were the main Hero Car, the Super Pursuit Mode Car, the Convertible Mode Car, and the trailer car that was built to transition K.I.T.T.'s T-top going into Convertible Mode, which had no engine so K.I.T.T. always had to be parked when Michael retracted or activated the roof. (There was also the Super Pursuit Mode close-up car with no engine, but it was the same recycled footage used throughout Season 4.)

Anyway, the Convertible Mode trailer car was always parked during the convertible transitions as I said, so therefore there would be no reason to install fully functional electronics in a car that was supposed to barely be used throughout Season 4. To be safe, I would assume the production crew stickered the dashboard just in case it happened to slip into a shot or two, which obviously happened in "Knight Of the Juggernaut." But I believe that's the only time it ever occurred. Every other time you can tell it's the trailer car not only because the roof is retracting, but because a red handle can be seen hanging from the roof (check the scene in "Out Of the Woods" as an example).

Furthermore, I believe the actual functioning Convertible Mode Car also didn't have functioning electronics AND had a Seasons 1-2 dashboard. Since it's one of the few original screen-used vehicles from the original series, I've seen shots of it from the Cars Of the Stars museum with the 2-T.V. dash where in currently resides in England.

My favorite blunder was in Trust Doesn't Rust. It's one of the few shots where we get a hint that the show car had actual working dash lights and could sync the modulator light to the spoken lines. Only thing is...it was KARR speaking with KITT's red flashing light. Indirectly, as the light was shining off the seats in a darkened environment.

I've noticed that, too. I'll put some screen shots up sometime in the near future when I'm not too lazy to make more DVD screen captures.

[Victor Kros]

Anyway, the Convertible Mode trailer car was always parked during the convertible transitions as I said, so therefore there would be no reason to install fully functional electronics in a car that was supposed to barely be used throughout Season 4. To be safe, I would assume the production crew stickered the dashboard just in case it happened to slip into a shot or two, which obviously happened in "Knight Of the Juggernaut." But I believe that's the only time it ever occurred. Every other time you can tell it's the trailer car not only because the roof is retracting, but because a red handle can be seen hanging from the roof (check the scene in "Out Of the Woods" as an example).

Furthermore, I believe the actual functioning Convertible Mode Car also didn't have functioning electronics AND had a Seasons 1-2 dashboard. Since it's one of the few original screen-used vehicles from the original series, I've seen shots of it from the Cars Of the Stars museum with the 2-T.V. dash where in currently resides in England.

- Yes you are correct, the convertable version of KITT didn't have real functioning electronics (or tv's for that matter) and you can also clearly see in Knight of the Juggernaut that most of the displays are just mostly stickers and gels. Here is an exclusive shot from behind the scenes of KITTnap on page 559 in The Knight Rider Companion which gives you a clear idea of just how cheaply constructed the convertable dash really was. Keep in mind that the camera didn't usually focus on the dash itself on screen, mostly as you said the stationary transforming roof effects.



Enjoy and do not repost this image to any site without my expressed permission.

(psst is that a Comtron trailer I see? *grins*)

=VK=

[ANDREWHEARNE]

Why did they redesign to one screen and the whole dash, I assume to modernise things?

[Lost Knight]

Wow, awesome picture, Victor. I can also see where they sawed off roof which there was apparently no reason to smooth over since the camera shots would always be from the front.

[Lost Knight]

Here's another one from "Good Day At White Rock" where the steering wheel has the same white decal that's on the voice modulator. There's also a few missing buttons on the switch pod as well. I remember seeing a better shot of this oddity in another episode, too:

[Rainack]

I noticed a couple of things. The first was in Deadly Manuevers. The steering wheel wasn't the gull wing, but it wasn't a regular steering whell, either. It was shaped similarly to the gull wing, but it had braces on the top. Kind of like a go cart steering wheel.
I noticed something very funny in Short Notice. At the end of the scene that takes place in the cowboy town, when Michael gives K.I.T.T. the thumbs up, you can see someone in the driver's seat uncovering themself. This must not have been the car modified for back seat driving.

[Lost Knight]

Here's a couple from "Slammin' Sammy's Stunt Show Spectacular." There's a left switch pod that isn't lettered and has missing buttons:



And we can see a round steering wheel in this scene:

[Knight007]

really amazing to look back at those things and see the way they have done the tricks. I wounder when we will find out about the tricks used in KR 08?

[Lost Knight]

really amazing to look back at those things and see the way they have done the tricks. I wounder when we will find out about the tricks used in KR 08?

(They use tinted windows.)

[GarthKnight08]

This one isn't TOS, it's from Team KR. The third episode, when the two company execs are speeding head on toward each other: they show the RPMs revving on the engines, but if you look to the right, you see the mph are at 0.

What the hell are you talking about? Team KR? Since when did KITT appear in Team Knight Rider?